An open letter to Luke Slattery, editor of the Australian Literary Review

Dear Luke,
I have enjoyed reading the ALR since you took over as editor, but I
have been troubled by the small number of women writing for the
publication, and also by the number of books by women that are
reviewed compared with books by men. A glance at today’s content
reveals a typical line up of contributors and coverage: two women
writers contributing, and one book by a woman reviewed.
A US organisation of women writers called VIDA recently published the
results of a survey of how many women write for, and are reviewed in,
major literary publications in the US and UK, including the Times
Literary Supplement, the London Review of Books, and The New Republic.
http://vidaweb.org/the-count-2010
The numbers are staggering, and for women writers (and readers too),
discouraging. For instance, The New York Review of Books published 79
women and 462 men, and reviewed books by 59 women and 306 men; The
Times Literary Supplement published 378 women and 1075 men and
reviewed books by 330 women and 1036 men; The Paris Review interviewed
one woman author and seven men.
Most surveyed publications all showed a similar bias. Their editors
have been mostly defensive on the questions raised by these
statistics, and in some cases have blamed presses for not publishing
enough books by women (The New Republic), or claimed that women do not
read the kind of books that can be taken seriously by serious
publications (TLS), or that women writers pitch less to editors (a
common claim across the board).
I know the situation isn’t impossible: I published a novel last year
that was reviewed in the ALR, and I published an essay in ALR in 2008
about the Harry Potter novels –  which are written by a woman, and not
the sort of fiction that is normally taken seriously by the literary
world. But clearly I am the exception to the rule in this respect.
In their presentation of the survey, the VIDA board says this: “The
truth is, these numbers don’t lie. But that is just the beginning of
this story. What, then, are they really telling us?”
Surely, not only women but men who care about writing and more
broadly, a more just and equal world, too, ought to be disturbed. What
do these numbers tell us? What is to be done about it? I’m interested
in your perspective on this imbalance and how it can be addressed.
Sincerely,
Kirsten Tranter